Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of reintroducing mandatory fire certificates for (a) houses in multiple occupation, (b) hospitals, (c) shopping centres and (d) other designated premises where people congregate in significant numbers.

The concept of a fire safety certificate was replaced in 2006 when the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) came into force and the Fire Precautions Act 1971 was repealed. We have no current plans to re-introduce them.

The FSO places a range of legal duties on Responsible Persons (the person in control of a premises), chief among which are the need to undertake a fire risk assessment to identify any general fire safety precautions that need to be taken to ensure that the premises, and people within it, are safe from fire, put those precautions in place and ensure they are subject to a suitable system of maintenance. Houses of multiple occupation, hospitals, shopping centres and places of congregation all fall within the scope of the FSO.

In 2019, the Home Office ran a Call for Evidence on the FSO, and the vast majority of respondents agreed that the scope and objectives of the FSO remain appropriate and it continues to provide an effective and proportionate regulatory framework.

Nevertheless, we have since taken action to further strengthen the FSO through the Fire Safety Act 2021, which clarified that the external walls, structure and flat entrance doors in multi-occupied residential premises are in scope, and through Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 which, amongst other things, introduced changes to make it easier for enforcement authorities to take action when appropriate, improve information sharing with residents and increase cooperation between Responsible Persons when there is more than one in a specific building.